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The story so far...
Start here if you're looking to catch up with the show without watching from the beginning. This page is intended to get new viewers up to date so it is full of spoilers! The finer details and sub-plots will be left out, but there is a list of recurring references to bring you into the fold. The Show RollPlay: Court of Swords is using the Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition game system and is run by RollPlays' DM Adam Koebel. When the show first launched, JP, Max, and Dan were the core party and the show invited on guest-members to join for a few weeks, creating natural sub-plots. The trio played together for 8 weeks, before being joined, one at a time, by Geoff Robinson, Sean Plott, Morgan Webb, and Anne Munition. Following these guests, the show did a three-part "Primordial Arc", culminating in the 50th episode live-show with JP, Max, Erin Wayne, and Ken Morrison. The pre-50 era of Court of Swords was deadly. JP alone lost nine characters, losing three characters in three consecutive episodes, including one of which died before even joining the party. At this point, the format of the show changed quite dramatically. JP and Adam put out a 20min video to talk about the changes. Totally not a result of JP dying three weeks in a row, though. The post-50 era of Court of Swords was to be more narratively focused with less frequent combat deaths, though the threats they face remain genuine and characters do still die sometimes. An alternate system for gaining experience based on character goals was also introduced so non-combat activities could still promote character levelling. In week 51, Zeke joined as a guest. While originally intended to be a temporary guest like all the others, Zeke's style and the new narrative focus of the show fit like purple on twitch. Zeke became a permanent member of the core cast and the show settled into longer narrative arcs. This structure remains. Occasionally the cast gets together for a "live-live show", thanks to the supporters on Patreon. Episodes 16, 50, 63 and 100 were live-live shows, which are double-length features (8 hour episodes). The Setting A great deal of the inspiration for the setting comes from The Tarot and from South Asian geography. The world is divided into four courts: Swords, Coins, Wands, and Cups. The City of Brass is the largest city in the world (well, it was, before the events of Episode 83). Geographically, the Court of Swords is a South Asian tropical jungle to the south, the Court of Coins is to the north, the Court of Wands is a desert region to the west, and the Court of Cups in an island archipelago to the east. Each Court is lead by a King, Queen, Page, and Knight. Primary races of the courts are dwarves, genasi, humans, and half-orcs, though aasimar, gnomes, yuan-ti, kenku, goliaths, and gaija do exist (and have been played as PCs). "Elves" do not exist (see The Farang). Organized religion follows the arc of the major arcana of the Tarot, representing a journey from ignorance to enlightenment. The Bureaucracy of Heaven represent stations along this journey. A demonic force, the Mara, attempt to undermine this journey toward enlightenment by tempting people with immediate fulfilment of desires —power, riches, etc.— to some long-term downfall, necromancy, or demonic infestation. Recently, on Court of Swords The party are headed toward the Monastery of the Sun, which is in the Court of Swords. This area of the court is currently overrun by the forces of the Necromancer King. JP is playing Maharib, who recently bested a dragon in combat, fulfilling an ancient pack between the Goliaths and the Embers of Immex. That was basically his life goal, so he's accomplished that. Max is playing Berg. He went to Heaven and came back with Jesus powers. He discovered the best noodle stand in all the courts: Doug's Noodles. Dan is playing Ramus, who doesn't have a soul... or does he? After downing a potent poison meant to kill all but him, Ramus was unconscious for several days before sharing a vision with Gravedirt, a lieutenant in the Necromancer King's forces at the Monastery of the Sun. Zeke is playing Yotta Zō saw a vision of his father in the Monastery of the Sun, looking comfortable despite the chaos around him. References to know Consent is important in the Court of Swords. Rapiers are the most effective method of decapitation in Court of Swords. Doug's Noodles. Does makes the best noodles around. His stand was outside the apartment where the party stayed in Bung Hwo (city's name?). Doug speaks with a lackadaisical attitude and would likely feel as comfortable on this side of the fourth wall as he does on that side. Ramus is very !wise. He also tricked a rival priestess into drinking his !piss. History: The First Forty-Seven Original by profnesbitt Prologue: The Rise of the Necromancer King Weeks 1–8. Three Magistrates (Zephyra Awen, Velimir Cetrovic, and Baern Hillstern) were sent from the Court of Swords to investigate a fishing village where weird things are occurring. They find the town filled with the undead and find two alive children (Thuy and her brother). Instead of investigating further they take the two children and flee to a nearby town. Thuy proves herself capable in a fight. Thuy and her brother get kidnapped in the night by the Kobolds of the mountain. The magistrate along with a town guard (Sorrowful Plum) go to rescue the children. After finding the cave the guard is killed by a trap and the Magistrates flee back to the town leaving the children to their fate. Upon arriving back in town they learn of the sickness of the Page of this town. The Page dies and a shade emerges from its body, the shade wreaks havoc on the town creating more of himself and killing Baern and turning him into a shade as well. Baern’s shade proceeds to kill Zephyra and Velimir when the Magistrates return to investigate Baern’s body. Chapter 1 Agents of Kukrit Weeks 9-13 Four Criminals (Gideon, Ramus, Janus, and Wester) are tasked by a man named Kukrit to investigate a location in the Xulin Valley (disputed territory between the Court of Swords and the Court of Cups). Upon investigating the tomb they find evidence that the tomb belonged to a Court of Coins Monk (Thousand Unanswered Questions). When they exit the tomb they fight a group of guards of the Court of Coins and Wester is killed in the encounter. The criminals return to Kukrit with their discovery and are given a new team member (Berg) and then told to go and get the slave bracer off of Wester’s body. They track his body to a village of the Court of Coins and attack the guards with the body. Janus is killed in the process. Chapter 2 The Legend of Persnidgetron Weeks 14-22 The three surviving criminals (Gideon, Ramus, Berg) return to Kukrit with the bracers and are given another task. They are to go with a Wizard (Zawaz Wazaz) into the marsh and find a mysterious magical orb. Zawaz is given a ring that can affect the criminals in a way comparable to how Kukrit’s staff can hurt them. Zawaz is killed by Kobolds almost immediately and Gideon takes the ring from his body. Upon putting on the ring he is shocked and his bracer detaches from his arm. They reach a hut in the marsh and encounter several Bullywugs carrying an unconscious woman. The group defeats the bullywugs with the help of a forest gnome (Persnidgetron) that emerges from the woods. They find the orb and speak to the woman (Azure Vortex) and find out she is studying the orb to find out its purpose. Persnidgetron tells the group of the plight of his people and their destruction in the war with the Rock Gnomes and his quest to kill the Rock Gnome King. Instead of returning to Kukrit the three plus Azure go with Persnidgetron to help him against the Rock Gnome King. A clan of Kenkus show them a secret way underground into the Rock Gnome lair and they descend into the caves. They encounter many corrupted Rock Gnomes with mechanical mogwais. The group gets overwhelmed in the cave by Rock Gnomes, Gideon is killed and Berg is downed in combat. Ramus dies dragging Berg’s body to safety as Persnidgetron finishes killing the Rock Gnomes. Berg and Azure Vortex bond with one another during this trying time. Persnidgetron, Berg, and Azure meet three angels (Raziel, Azriel, Volnach) as they continue searching for the Rock Gnome King. The angels were down here looking for the source of the corruption of the Rock Gnome King so they team up with the others. They find the Rock Gnome King’s chambers and proceed to fight him, his manticore, and his guards. Raziel and Volnach die fighting the Manticore and Azure Vortex rushes the Rock Gnome King and is cut in half. Her body along with the Orb fall into the waters below. The Rock Gnome King dies to Azriel’s Javelin and he, Persnidgetron, and Berg loot his chambers. They find large quantities of gold which Persnidgetron is given a lot of to help restart the Kingdom of the Forest Gnomes. They also find a magical hammer called the Apology of Emperor Fei and a magical elephant statue later named Chuckles. Chapter 3 Deals with The Devil Weeks 23-35 Berg and Azriel head towards the capitol of the Court of Coins to figure out what they will do next. In the city a Kenku (Jubilant Black Gale) from the Kenku clan they met earlier catches up to them and offers to help them on their journey. Through a series of misfortunes they become indebted to a local crime boss named Grasping Hands. They investigate a drug ring in the swamps for him and discover the Red Banner Company working with Lizardfolk in the area harvesting drugs from underneath an ancient ziggurat. Upon leaving the caves Berg, Azriel, and Jubilant find a mysterious chamber with a mysterious humming sound and an eight foot long crystalline prism that’s floating and rotating in the center of the room. A humanoid shape is inside of the prism (Most likely Tulpa). The group feels relaxed waiting near it and are relieved of any exhaustion they had. After much deliberation they each touch the prism and receive a “gift”. Azriel touches it first, crits his wisdom save (22,6), sees a vision, the player is allowed to select any first level wizard spell and add it to their paladin spell list, Azriel can now summon a familiar. Jubilant touches it second, rolls his wisdom save (21,11), sees a vision, the player selects an uncommon magical item to be incorporated into themselves (Broom of Flying), Jubilant can now fly. Berg touches it last, rolls his wisdom save (15,10), sees a vision, no player choice, Berg can now deal an extra d4 of necrotic damage and absorb it as hit points when he is raging. If he kills something with this ability there will be side effects. The three return to Grasping Hands and meet his acquaintance a Yuan Ti (Nak’ana Ino) and are tasked with helping her investigate an area. After a lengthy search, fighting a military village of the Red Banner, losing Chuckles, and Nak’ana Ino dying and being revived by a slumbering draconic entity they find the ancient temple Nak’ana Ino was looking for. They enter the temple and kill the corrupted monstrosity that is siphoning power from the sleeping draconic entity. Berg, Azriel, and Jubilant leave and return to the capitol of the Court of Coins. Nak’ana Ino takes her spot in the temple and begins waking up the slumbering draconic entity. When the three return to town among other things they find Bounty Hunters looking for Berg. They strike up a deal that they will go back to the Rock Gnome lair and retrieve the orb. They retrieve the orb and fight several ghosts, and find a chained brass dragon and attempt to help it. When they get close enough the dragon reveals itself to be mostly mechanical and kills Jubilant and Azriel. Berg runs, sneaks past the bounty hunters that setup a trap outside the lair and chose to join Hassan and become a servant of the Tower. Chapter 4 Servants of the Tower Weeks 36-47 Many years have passed, Ramus has been resurrected to serve the Tower and a noble (Enoch) has joined to help Berg serve the Tower. They are tasked with destroying the taint that exists at the House of the Falcon. On the grounds, they meet a Halfling (Ziva Tarkas) intent on robbing the house. She agrees to help the servants of the Tower if they help her. The four of them attempt to kill a Were creature on the grounds but it escapes them so they enter the house. Inside the house they find out the master of the house is a vampire and it turns Ziva. Ziva now plans to kill the master vampire and take his mantle so she does not have to serve him. The four of them confront the master of the house and kill him, but not before Enoch dies by his hand. Ramus and Berg return to the inn they have been staying in unsure of what to do now that the Tower has told them they’ve done well and it’s time to take a break. History: The Full First Hundred Original by TwilightBorealis Once upon a time there were three magistrates in the Court of Swords sent to check out rumors of necromancy. Despite their abundant caution, not only did they not defeat the budding necromantic power, but they, and nearly everyone around them died. But this won’t be important again until like episode 90. Next, we are brought upon a group of slaves (including Ramus) in disputed territory between the Court of Swords and the Court of Coins. They are basically meant to find ways to end the dispute in the CoS’s favor. They aren’t the best at their job. One of them, a half-orc fighter with amazing stats named Wester, gets his neck snapped on their first mission. He is replaced by Berg, who has terrible stats and everyone jokes will be around forever. Joke was on them, he is unkillable. Geoff’s character is killed next and he leaves the show. Sean creates a pompus wizard and is immolated within his premier episode. His death allows JP’s slave character to be freed through a magical artifact. Instead, the completely randomly generated gnome ranger, Persnidgetron, joins alongside the npc Azure Vortex. She is important to Berg, as either a friend or love interest depending on who you ask. Snidge’s mission is to free his people from the rock gnome king. Unfortunately, rock gnomes are best in caves. Everybody but Snidge, Berg, and Azure die. JP, Dan, and Max make a bunch of angel characters to help the other party. They eventually meet-up, and move deeper into the caves. Rust monsters happen. Berg gets scarred for life. Then the rock gnome king dies, but so does everybody except Snidge, Berg, and Dan’s angel character. Berg gets his hammer, The Apology of Emperor Fei. They forget Azure’s magic orb that they were originally supposed to bring back to their handlers. Oops. Berg and Azriel (Dan’s angel) meet up with JP’s new character, a kenku. They basically become the lap-dogs of a gangster (in service of The Devil arcana, not to be confused with the western devil, it is a Heavenly entity) named Grasping Hands. They work with Morgan’s character to re-awaken a Primordial serpent. They also lose Chuckles, a magical ivory elephant carving that could turn into an elephant. They will never get him back. Then the three of them (minus Morgan’s character) go back into the rock gnome cave to get the orb back. This is universally acknowledged as a mistake. They do get some cools buffs though, including a Farang passenger inside Berg. They eventually meet some kind of mechanical dragon chained in a wall. Everybody but Berg dies, and Berg crits a stealth to escape. He then meets the mysterious Hazaan (who has been in the background for a while, hinted at here or there), and is offered a job with The Tower. Berg takes it. TEN YEARS PASS Ramus is now a soulless husk, but is back with Berg. They are in the City of Brass, giant magical capital of the Court of Wands, serving the tower. They meet up with Anne’s halfling character to deal with a vampire manor. Anne’s character becomes a vampire. Berg’s arm turns to stone. Jp’s character dies, and they kill the vampire. Primordial stuff happens. It is important for background, but set in the distant past, so I will skip it here. It does involve JP losing three characters in 3 episodes though, so the system is changed to make deadliness of encounters less prominent. Zeke joins the show when this new roleplay-centric change is made. He plays Kalimat, a dragonborn who is one of the last of his kind. JP plays a tortle wizard, and comes with great spells like that sweet, sweet tiny hut. Don’t get used to it. They meet up with Berg and Ramus, and eventually get toyed around by some Wizards with a capital W. In the magical domain of one of them, Kalimat releases a psionic space-elf (think Protoss), and the group meets/frees the Primordial Agni. She is universally acclaimed as the best by the audience. She makes berg’s stone arm functional (METAL ARMS!), and blesses Ramus with fire-resistance (handprint burned to his face). Berg also kinda wrecks his hammer by dipping it in a fake Fountain. Oops? They then destroy the domain. Bigger oops? They barely escape with their lives. Desert wandering happens. Ramus puts all of his gear in a bag of devouring. They even meet a traveling band of free orcs. Kalimat meets their leader more than others. Berg’s hammer becomes a psionic weapon, Tulpa’s conduit (Tulpa is his farang soul-passenger). Meanwhile, the City of Brass is burning. The Tower wants to destroy everything, the other arcana want to save the city, the Farang want to take over, and the Mara want to take advantage. The party aligns with The Tower, and eventually Berg kills his and Ramus’s former master. Ramus gets a bunch of cool rings and a key to Heaven. The party also picks up the reincarnation of Azure Vortex, and Kalimat keeps her close as he can. JP’s tortle (Salihafa) goes into the archives of The Sun to find out more about the Farang, and the primordial sleeping under the city. He meets a god of forgetting. Kalimat and Berg eventually kill it, but not until after Salihafa is dead. Ramus tries to bring him back, but Salihafa chooses to remain dead. Kalimat goes a little crazy, but starts following the fate set in front of him. JP should have made a new character at this point, but for some reason I can’t remember anything about him. How odd. Anyway, the 4? of them meet up with some Berg-worshipping orcs, and then go into The Devil’s vault. Berg gets rid of Tulpa by drinking a potion that immediately kills him. Oops? Berg goes directly to Heaven where he meets the God of Bad Luck and Emperor Fei. He goes through a training montage and time passes differently for him. He looks like a more perfect, older Berg. His hammer and he alike have become the Hammer of Heaven. He then goes to fight the older brother of the Bad Luck god (the Bad Luck god loves Berg, which is why bad things kept happening to him), the God of Good Luck. Berg can’t make the rolls, so he is sent back to the mortal realm. Meanwhile, the others gain equipment and knowledge they will find helpful (including the location of Ramus’s soul-jar in Heaven and the location of a door matching the key to Heaven, in the monastery of the Sun in the CoS). They also have some nameless ancient man join them. They had lost the reincarnated Azure at some point and Kalimat trades a previously acquired magical dagger to get her back. The party reunites with Hammer of Heaven Berg. They go to kill the four leaders of the Court of Wands in order to release a barrier. They are confronted by the leader of the Farang and somehow win the fight. They then bring the ancient man and the bodies of the rulers (the ancient man’s siblings) back to Hazaan in the Tower. The ancient man is the other half of Hazaan (Ramus-stlye split-soul situation), and kills him to become whole again. He also takes the power of his siblings. Oops. The party summons the Primordial of the mountain under the city and kill him (along with pretty much everything else). Berg has run away at this point, but the Primordial swears to not harm Kalimat and Ramus due to various blessings. JP’s character doesn’t have such blessings, but for whatever reason I remember him being unafraid, and the Primordial respecting that. Kalimat goes off (on his own, I guess?) to find out more about dragons. He ends up going blind and eating a cross-dimensional summoning bell or something similar. Dan has a cool hexblade lady, and Max has a forest gnome who hates Sean’s new empire. They work with some cult who are interested in the bell, and eventually go off on a mission. Max’s character gets fed-up with the needless killing and goes into the forest. Dan’s cool hexblade lady dies, but might come back with help from the cult. Kalimat kills a little girl who had a Heavenly God sealed inside him, and gets a wish for thanks. Kalimat gets turned into a storm dragon egg and goes to Heaven with the god. Ramus is in a bad way. His lack of soul is destroying him. He meets up with a Goliath fighter, Maharib, and a drunken master elephant monk, Yotta Zou. They get attacked by undead as they cross into the Court of Swords from the Court of Coins. They obtain an odd green potion from the undead troops. They meet Berg in a nearby city, and get noodles from Doug’s noodle cart. Berg also accidentally starts a new cult, by using miraculous heaven energy on a peasant. Eventually the party goes to the Temple of the Moon there, and it is a mess. Yotta and Rib have a fight, where Rib demolishes Yotta’s HP and confidence. Some monks jump Yotta later on and Ramus immolates them. They are excused by the head of the temple for this transgression and are sent along the mystical moon bridge to a temple closer to their destination: the monastery of the Sun. After a treacherous journey through the moon bridge, the destroyed temple on the other side, and the swamp leading to the jungle, we reach episode 100. There, the party meets up with an arch-wizard hiding in the jungle who eventually will analyze the green potion. They also learn more about the state of the Court of Swords and the rise of the Necromancer King. The necro army now holds the monastery. Instead of running in to a fight, they decide to go find the worshipers of flame, The Embers of Imix, first. Also, Yotta teaches Berg and Rib that true strength is more than the STR stat, by showing them his resistance to poison. After a week of travel, the group arrives at the base of the Embers’ cell. Rib immediately calls forth an emissary of Imix, in order to restore the ancient pact between the primordials and his people, the giants, so they may wage war on Heaven. In order for this to happen, Rib must prove his strength by fighting a fire dragon. Everyone is frozen in fear, but Yotta uses his inner strength to break it, and confronts the beast. Rib notices this, and passes his people’s heirloom to Yotta to use on the dragon. The dagger deals a great blow, but also exhausts Yotta’s HP and permanently drains all of his color. Ramus brings Yotta back up, and casts harm on the Dragon. Berg is so frustrated by his fear that he lets out a great yell, giving advantage to all of his allies on all rolls for the next round. Rib has 6 attacks when using action surge. This means no more dragon. Rib doesn’t kill it, however, cementing an alliance with the Embers. Yotta learns that his father is alive but aligned with the necro army. Ramus learns that Agni and the Embers can’t help his soul situation, and instead turns to Heaven. With Divine Intervention, he gets the Tower to restore his soul. Unfortunately, that means it was returned to The Wheel, and he was reincarnated as a monkey. The husk of Ramus was not saved. After returning to the arch-wizard, we learn that she has aligned with the necro army and is leaving. She also learned that the green potion would kill anyone but Ramus and would instead restore hi- HEY WAIT, RAMUS! LET HER FINISH BEFORE DRINKING THAT! Too late, Ramus goes into a coma. He spiritually meets with the necromancer king, and their is now a fake upper-soul in his body. He is fully restored.